The present invention relates to a laser cleaving process and, more particularly, to a continuous flow process that allows for the material to be cleaved to be presented to the cleaving apparatus in a continuous time arrangement.
Present systems for cleaving semiconductor optical bars into individual optical devices involves loading a set of bars onto a membrane (formed as a hoop or frame-supported diaphragm) such that the devices on each bar are aligned from one bar to another, then manually bringing the cleaving apparatus into contact with the aligned bars and performing sequential scribing and cleaving operations to form multiple, separated individual devices. The process is extremely time consuming and requires one or more operators to perform the procedure effectively and efficiently.